Gold Coin Amazon - Tall Ships Legacy 2016 Proof

Tall Ships Legacy - Amazon (Mary Celeste)

Issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2016, this exclusive 1 Oz (31.16 g) proof gold coin in the finest 99.99% pure gold is the third of four coins released in the "Tall Ships Legacy" series, which celebrates Canadian maritime history and commemorates one of the most famous sailing ships - the Amazon.

The reverse of the coin depicts the tilting Amazon in precise detail, its sails buffeted by strong winds, propelling it forward across the clearing waters of the Atlantic. Precise engraving enhances the ship's appearance with great historical accuracy. The motif is complemented by the inscription "CANADA", "AMAZON", the year of issue and the initials of the author "NH". The obverse shows a traditional portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt with the inscriptions "ELIZABETH II" and "D.G. REGINA".

The coin comes in a gift box along with a numbered certificate of authenticity in a limited edition of only 275 pieces for the entire world!

Amazon

The ship was built on Spencer's Island (Nova Scotia) under the name Amazon. She was launched in May 1861 and originally sailed under the British flag. She was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Cape Breton Island in October 1868, and after repairs was bought by American shipbuilder Richard W. Haines, who gave her a new name, Mary Celeste, in 1869. In November of that year, the ship became the property of James H. Winchester of New York. In his service, she sailed on 5 November 1872 from New York Harbor to Genoa with a cargo of 1,701 barrels of alcohol. The captain was Benjamin Briggs, who took aboard his wife and two-year-old daughter. Also on board were First Mate Albert G. Richardson and six crew members.

On 4 December 1872, the American ship Dei Gratia encountered a ship in the Atlantic Ocean at 38°20' N. and 17°15' W. on 4 December 1872, which was apparently unmanned and not responding to signals. Captain David Morehouse came closer and recognised the Mary Celeste, a ship he knew well from the past. He ordered the first mate, Oliver Deveau, to examine the vessel. He found no one on board. The ship was in considerable disarray, but there was no sign of violence or damage (the captain's wife's sewing machine was full of oil, indicating a very calm sea). There was about a metre of water in the hold. The lifeboat, sextant and navigation books were missing, but the logbook, a large sum of money, the captain's wife's jewellery, clothes, pipes and a supply of food and drink were left on board - indicating that the ship must have been abandoned in great haste, although there was no obvious reason for this. Deveau brought the ship to Gibraltar harbour nine days later, where he reported the incident to the authorities. The subsequent investigation ended in a stalemate. The crew of the Mary Celeste were never found. The ship was repaired and served until 1885, when it was wrecked off the island of Haiti: in this case, however, it was undoubtedly an insurance fraud.

The case attracted considerable attention. There was speculation of insurance fraud or pirate robbery, and even the sailors of the Dei Gratia were accused of taking the ship by force and covering their tracks in order to obtain the finder's fee, which at the time was a fifth of the ship's price. However, none of this was ever proven. Later, several persons claiming to be survivors of the Mary Celeste came forward but were exposed as impostors. In 1884, Arthur Conan Doyle published a short story in the Cornhill Magazine, The Declaration of J. Habakkuk Jephson, in which he described the murder of the ship's crew by a fanatical black liberation fighter; it was an apparent work of fiction in which the generally known facts were deliberately altered. The theory that the ship had been deliberately abandoned or that the crew had been victims of a crime was almost certainly ruled out by forensic methods. It is speculated that the alcohol fumes in the hold spontaneously ignited and the crew, in a panic, boarded a lifeboat which was wrecked in the open sea. Other authors explain the hasty abandonment of the ship by the insanity of the people on board, which could have been caused by ergotism from food or infrasound. Another possible explanation was a sudden waterspout that swept everything alive from the deck. According to the adherents of pseudoscience, the crew was eaten by a giant krakatic or abducted by aliens.